Vucic Promises Zrenjanin New MRI Machine and Angio Suite
At a rally in Zrenjanin, the United Serbia list leader announced road and bridge works, new hospital equipment and a win by half a million votes on October 25.
Aleksandar Vucic, leader of the “Aleksandar Vucic - United Serbia” list, addressed a campaign rally in Zrenjanin on Sunday, October 11. He announced that work on the road near Orlovat and on the bridge over the Tamis begins in the coming days, that the Zrenjanin hospital is getting a new magnetic resonance imaging machine and a new angio suite, and he set a goal of winning the snap parliamentary elections on October 25 by half a million votes.
The Zrenjanin rally follows Kragujevac, where Vucic earlier promised a salary of 1,500 euros.
What did he promise Zrenjanin?
The most important part of the plan for the city, Vucic said, is the hospital. The existing equipment, he said, often breaks down and will be replaced with new machines.
“There is an MRI, but it works a little and then stops, there is an angio suite and every so often that one doesn’t work either, and that is why a new MRI machine and angio suite are coming,” Vucic said.
He gave neither a sum nor a completion date for the road and the bridge, only a start of works. “The road near Orlovat and the bridge over the Tamis, we start working on them in the coming days,” he said. He added that Zrenjanin and the surrounding towns need more investors besides Linglong, and that a few things remain owed.
Half a million votes and a message on foreign policy
Vucic called the October 25 elections decisive. “I want to beat them by half a million votes, and I want it to be convincing,” he told the rally. He presented a vote for the Student List as a choice between being governed by his side or by someone from outside. “If you want someone from outside to govern, then vote for the plenums,” he said.
He also argued that a change of government would mean a change of foreign policy course, sanctions on Russia and recognition of Kosovo’s independence. He backed that claim by invoking the Russian president:
“Why do you think (Russian President Vladimir) Putin said he hopes I will be prime minister? Because he also knows that I am telling the truth,” Vucic said.
A message from the car and a figure from Nis
On the way to Zrenjanin, Vucic addressed supporters on Instagram from a car. “Our lead is growing, it will certainly be hard and uncertain,” he said, adding that his list’s lead is growing from day to day. On the same occasion he said that 6,300 people attended the Student List rally in Nis the night before. That is his figure, and no independent confirmation has been published.
Vucic also claimed that the “old Democratic Party” is returning to the National Assembly through the Student List, and predicted that the list will fall apart as soon as it enters parliament. He also mentioned the actors who support the Student List, Tihomir Stanic, Katarina Radivojevic and Jelena Stupljanin, saying they cannot influence whom citizens vote for.
What does the United Phantoms Movement claim?
The United Phantoms Movement (PUF) also made itself heard during the rally. The movement says police detained its members Milan Minja Pernat and Petar Petrovic, who, it says, intended to ask questions, and held them at the station until the end of the rally. The police position was not stated in published reports.
PUF adds that Sonja Pernat, Miljan Cicic, the KTV television crew and Nemanja Sarovic were prevented from moving freely. The movement stated:
“Police officers violently pushed and struck them, and then surrounded them in a cordon they could not leave. Has the unlawful obstruction of freedom of movement become a legitimate tool of the police? With these actions, the Zrenjanin police officers, led by Branislav Todorovic, have once again taken the side of the regime.”
PUF also asks why Zrenjanin was under siege by police forces if Vucic attended the rally as an ordinary citizen.
